Was denationalisation of the Electricity Supply a good thing?

Question

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article4029776.ece

Should important utilities such as these be under Government control to prevent profiteering.

Answer 1

I think it should be government run. The same reason as you do.

There are to many getting richer while the poor get poorer

Answer 2

The privatisation of all our former UK state owned enterprises was a big mistake.

What people seem to have forgotten, is that all of these state owned enterprises, the railways, the roads, the canals, the electricity supply, the gas, the water, the mines, the steal mills etc.,  all made huge profits which were used to help finance such as the NHS and other things which the people needed and wanted.

Okay, so a few people made a small amount of money when they bought the shares which then went up in price.  The people who made most money were the big business pals of Margaret Thatcher et al.

We're now stuck with an electricity industry which is incapable of keeping up the supply, which was never ever the case when it was all state owned - money no object etc.

In my childhood in the 1940s, the Labour UK.gov of c1945 began the creation of the welfare state.  It was funded to a great extent by the newly nationalised industries - as explained above.

Now everyone has to pay more NHS NI contributions and more general tax to take care of the old, the sick and the infirm and so forth.

I'm a pensioner and no longer have to pay for anything myself, but someone else has to go on paying.  When I paid NI contributions during my 50+ years at work, that money was used to help others.  Now others in their turn must keep me in funds with a state pensions and so forth.

We have had a so-called Labour UK.gov over the last 8+ years which has done nothing which I can remotely think of as vaguely 'socialist'.  The word 'socialism' has been torn out of the dictionary and the word Union is now considered a swear word by some self-apointed toffs sitting on the Labour front benches.

There are still a few socialists on the Labour side.  One such is the ever present Denis Skinner MP - brilliant.  Always has something to say 'rude' to Black Rod - quite right too, we're the bosses now.

I want to see a clear difference between Labour and Conservative in parliament and in particular in the Commons.

I have no objection what-so-ever to Bo-Jo as Mayor of London, nor indeed David Cameron MP as PM - if and when etc.  

No.  My objection is being served up the same dull cold cuts each time out.

I want something hot with a bit of zap to it.

Think we might get that in 2010 or even before.  Just don't hold your breath on that - jury is out. . . .have a think about, etc.

Answer 3

It was a means for the then government to raise huge amounts of money without raising taxes but it prevented the creation of a properly coordinated energy strategy. The people who ran the nationalised industries suddenly became 'entrepreneurs' after a lifetime of being a kind of civil servant and made disastrous investments.

The electricity and other utility markets are too important to be left to market forces. You could have private utilities and regulation as we do now but then you end up with a 'fat cats club' - the idea of public service is now dead.

Answer 4

It was good for the shareholders of the privatised companies but I think the rest of us are losing out. Essential services should always be under state control in my view.

Answer 5

Most nationalised were extremely inefficient. They were introduced by socialist regimes and overseen by a large number of civil servants and employed an excessive number of workers. By money standards of 30 years ago British Steel was losing 1 million pounds a day, that's £70 a year for every man, woman and child living in the country. It's loses were very small compared with those of the Gas, Electricity, Water, Railways, and Post Office/Telephone Companies. All this had to be paid for by taxation.

Taxation hasn't decreased now that these  industries are no longer publicly owned, taxation today is used by the present socialist regime to pay for benefits to their voters, to pay vast sums to the EU and to give millions away to foreign countries in the hope that many of their residents will emigrate here to displace Christianity and provide a surplus of new socialist voters for the said desperate failing regime.

Answer 6

Here in N. Ireland we've just heard that electricity prices are about to go up by 30% over the next few months.  Selling off utilities to private investors isn't good for the people who need to use them.

Answer 7

it was a major mistake

as was selling off the railways

gas bills doubled in 5 years

energy bills up by 70% in 5 years

4.5 million homes currently in fuel poverty

like i say, major mistake